Lepke (film)

Last updated
Lepke
Lepke (film).jpg
Directed by Menahem Golan
Screenplay by
Story byWesley Lau
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Andrew Davis
Music by Kenneth Wannberg
Production
company
AmeriEuro Corp
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date
  • June 11, 1975 (1975-06-11) [1]
Running time
123 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$900,000 [2] [3]

Lepke is a 1975 film starring Tony Curtis as the Jewish-American gangster Louis "Lepke" Buchalter. [4] It is often regarded by film critics as one of Tony Curtis's most underrated movies and one of his finest performances [ who? ]

Contents

Cast

Production

Menahem Golan had been a successful filmmaker in Israel and had ambitions to break into Hollywood. Lepke was to be the first of four films he intended to make there. Golan said he chose Lepke as a subject because he grew up on American gangster films of Bogart and Cagney. "I was afraid to touch a contemporary American subject and be disgraced like Miloš Forman and Antonioni," he said in a 1974 interview. "If you go back to the old then at least you and the young people are starting on the same foot. And besides, Lepke was a Jewish gangster rather than an Italian." [3]

It was Curtis' first feature in a number of years - he had been working in TV and on the stage. Curtis called it "the best role I've ever had. Helluva colorful character and I age from 26 to 45 and die in the electric chair. And, you know, the guy who gave me the part came from Israel. No Hollywood producer would cast me for it." [5]

Filming took place at Culver City studios. [6]

In his 2008 autobiography American Prince Curtis admitted becoming heavily addicted to cocaine during filming; this addiction would last for a decade and significantly derailed his already troubled film career. [7] His mother died during filming. [8]

Golan intended to make two more period gangster films in succession to use the same sets and costumes to save money but only The Four Deuces was made - the third, Kill the Dutchman about Dutch Schultz, was not made until 1992. [9]

Release

The film was sold to Warner Bros for $1.75 million. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Curtis</span> American actor (1925–2010)

Tony Curtis was an American actor with a career that spanned six decades, achieving the height of his popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in more than 100 films, in roles covering a wide range of genres. In his later years, Curtis made numerous television appearances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bugsy Siegel</span> American mobster (1906–1947)

Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was an American mobster who was a driving force behind the development of the Las Vegas Strip. Siegel was influential within the Jewish Mob, along with his childhood friend and fellow gangster Meyer Lansky, and he also held significant influence within the Italian-American Mafia and the largely Italian-Jewish National Crime Syndicate. Described as handsome and charismatic, he became one of the first front-page celebrity gangsters.

Murder, Inc. was an organized crime group active from 1929 to 1941 that acted as the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicate – a closely connected criminal organization that included and was started by the Irish Mob, and included Italian-American Mafia, the Jewish Mob, and other criminal organizations in New York City and elsewhere. Murder, Inc. was composed of Irish, Jewish, and Italian-American gangsters, and members were mainly recruited from poor and working-class Irish, Jewish, and Italian neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn. It was initially headed by Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and later by Albert "Mad Hatter" Anastasia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Capone</span> American mobster

Louis Capone was a New York organized crime figure who became a supervisor for Murder, Inc. Louis Capone was not related to Al Capone, the boss of the Chicago Outfit. Capone was convicted of murder in 1941, and sentenced to death. He was electrocuted at Sing Sing Prison on March 4, 1944.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lepke Buchalter</span> American mob boss

Louis Buchalter, known as Louis Lepke or Lepke Buchalter, was a Jewish-American organized crime figure and head of the Mafia hit squad Murder, Inc., during the 1930s. Buchalter was one of the premier labor union racketeers in New York City during that era.

The National Crime Syndicate was a multi-ethnic, closely connected, American confederation of several criminal organizations. It mostly consisted of and was led by the closely interconnected Italian American Mafia and Jewish Mob. It also involved, to a lesser extent, other ethnic criminal organizations such as the Irish Mob and African-American crime groups. Hundreds of murders were committed by Murder, Inc. on behalf of the National Crime Syndicate during the 1930s and 1940s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Maione</span> American mobster

Harry "Happy" Maione was a New York mobster who served as a hitman for Murder, Inc. during the 1930s. Maione was called "Happy" because his face displayed an eternal scowl.

<i>Murder, Inc.</i> (1960 film) 1960 film by Stuart Rosenberg

Murder, Inc. is a 1960 American gangster film starring Stuart Whitman, May Britt, Henry Morgan and Peter Falk. Filmed in Cinemascope and directed by Burt Balaban and Stuart Rosenberg, the film was based on the true story of Murder, Inc., a Brooklyn gang that operated in the 1930s.

Albert Tannenbaum, nicknamed Allie or Tick-Tock, was a Jewish-American hitman for Murder, Inc., the enforcement arm of the National Crime Syndicate, during the 1930s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emanuel Weiss</span> American mobster (1906–1944)

Emanuel "Mendy" Weiss was an American organized crime figure. He was an associate of the notorious Louis Buchalter and part of Buchalter's criminal organization known as Murder, Inc. during the 1930s and up to the time of his arrest for murder in 1941, for which he was convicted and, in 1944, executed. The Federal Bureau of Narcotics claimed that Weiss and his partner in crime Philip "Little Farvel" Cohen were heavily involved in narcotics trafficking. Although he was indicted on multiple drug charges, Weiss was never sentenced for any of these crimes.

Harry "Big Greenie" Greenberg was an associate and childhood friend of Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, and an employee of both Charlie "Lucky" Luciano and Meyer Lansky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yoram Globus</span> Israeli-American film producer

Yoram Globus is an Israeli–American film producer, cinema owner, and distributor. He has been involved in over 300 full-length motion pictures and he is most known for his association with The Cannon Group, Inc., an American film production company, which he co-owned with his cousin Menahem Golan.

The Bugs (Bugsy) and Meyer Mob was a Jewish-American street gang in Manhattan, New York City's Lower East Side. It was formed and headed by mobsters Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky during their teenage years shortly after the start of Prohibition. The Bugs and Meyer mob acted as a predecessor to Murder, Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish-American organized crime</span> Jewish Mob or the Jewish Mafia

Jewish-American organized crime initially emerged within the American Jewish community during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In media and popular culture, it has variously been referred to as the Jewish Mob, the Jewish Mafia, the Kosher Mob, the Kosher Mafia, the Yiddish Connection, and Kosher Nostra or Undzer Shtik. The last two of these terms are direct references to the Italian Cosa Nostra; the former is a play on the word for kosher, referring to Jewish dietary laws, while the latter is a calque of the Italian phrase 'cosa nostra' into Yiddish, which was at the time the predominant language of the Jewish diaspora in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shapiro Brothers</span> American mobsters

Meyer (1908–1931), Irving (1904–1931) and Willie Shapiro (1911–1934), collectively known as the Shapiro Brothers, were the leaders of a group of Jewish-American mobsters from New York City and based in Williamsburg. Well established in the local garment industry, long dominated by Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro and Louis "Lepke" Buchalter since the 1927 death of Jacob "Little Augie" Orgen, the two began to move against them in the summer of 1931.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacob Shapiro</span> American mob boss

Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro was a New York mobster who, with his partner Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, controlled industrial labor racketeering in New York for two decades and established the Murder, Inc. organization.

Hyman "Curly" Holtz, also known as "Little Hymie", was a New York labor racketeer who began working as a labor slugger for Jacob "Little Augie" Orgen during the early 1920s.

Abraham "Whitey" Friedman was a New York mobster and former associate of Nathan "Kid Dropper" Kaplan and later for labor racketeers Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro as an enforcer in New York's garment district during the 1920s and 1930s. One of many former associates killed by Murder, Inc. on the orders of Buchalter, he had recently been called in for questioning by investigators with crusading District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey, and was gunned down as he was walking near his home on East 96th Street in Brooklyn during the early evening of April 25, 1939. Before his murder, Friedman was suspected of informing on Buchalter.

Isadore or Irving Friedman, also known under the alias Danny Field, was a New York mobster and an associate of labor racketeer Louis "Lepke" Buchalter. He later agreed to testify against Buchalter on behalf of District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey as one of several high-profile witnesses scheduled to testify against Buchalter; however, he was murdered along with Louis Cohen on January 28, 1939, shortly before his court appearance. Jacob "Kuppy" Midgen was believed to be the killer.

Oz Almog is an Israeli and Austrian artist, born on 15 April 1956, in Kfar Saba, Israel.

References

  1. "Lepke". Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute . Retrieved 2015-09-23.
  2. 1 2 Andrew Yule, Hollywood a Go-Go: The True Story of the Cannon Film Empire, Sphere Books, 1987, p. 10. ISBN   978-0722193891.
  3. 1 2 Israeli Film-Makers in New Land Murphy, Mary. Los Angeles Times 2 Mar 1974: a8.
  4. "Lepke (1975)". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2015-09-23.
  5. Thomas, Bob (1 April 1974). "Tony Curtis bitter about former 'friends'". The San Francisco Examiner. p. 30.
  6. MOVIE CALL SHEET: 'Pedestrian' Rights Acquired Murphy, Mary. Los Angeles Times 08 Feb 1974: e18.
  7. Curtis p 303-304
  8. Curtis p 298
  9. Thomas, Bob (1 April 1974). "Israel shows his chutzpah in films". The Ottawa Citizen. p. 53.

Notes